Lights! Camera! Action! What role do Catholic film critics play in enabling people of faith to make the best choices regarding the media they consume?

Whether we like it or not, the visual media culture is the modern-day marketplace where minds and hearts are won and lost. What are the major trends that it is reflecting to us about ourselves? How can Catholic media critics assist us to critically engage with our culture while holding true to our faith in Christ?

Fr. Richard Leonard SJ

Richard Leonard is a Jesuit priest. He served on juries at the Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Warsaw, Hong Kong, Montreal, Brisbane and Melbourne International Film Festivals and he has lectured on faith and culture all over the world. Richard Leonard has degrees in Arts and Education, a master’s degree in theology, graduating his studies at the London Film School, and a PhD from the University of Melbourne. He directed the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting for 22 years. As an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Catholic University, he has been a visiting scholar within the School of Theatre, Film & Television at UCLA and a Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Richard has been published in America Magazine, Eureka Street, US Catholics, is regular columnist with The London Tablet and is often on ABC Radio. He is the author of 13 books including “Movies that matter: finding faith through the lens of film”, “The mystical gaze of the cinema: the films of Peter Weir”, “Where the hell is God?” among others. His latest book, "Why God?" was published in 2024.  Currently, he is the parish priest of North Sydney/Lavender Bay/Kirribilli.

Conferences Eutopos

The search for a good place, or an eutopos, has been at the roots of Brotéria's activity over the last year. At Brotéria, we believe that this search has not yet been exhausted. On the contrary, there is still plenty of hidden good to show, many good unknown lives to reveal, many good transformative projects to share. We live in a rugged world, where progress is slow, but where good is built and where hope often does become visibly concrete.

Com o apoio